Meditations on the Tarot – Page 10 – Meditations on the Tarot

2016-12-06

Meeting Notes for Advent Meditation 2

The task for this week is to work on the purity of thought.

Whenever we catch ourselves harboring negative or hateful thoughts about others, envious thoughts, inappropriate erotic thoughts, inter alia, even negative thoughts, perhaps especially, about ourselves, we are to do the concentration exercise.

Bring attention to your selected body area and while you maintain that awareness, observe those thoughts while striving – without effort – and see what happens.

We need to be gatekeeper’s of our thoughts, like an esoteric version of Maxwell’s Demon.

Most of you did not choose to speak last night, so I have to assume that you found it difficult to remember to do the concentration exercise. Nevertheless, the effort is worthwhile and it is important to notice the difference from our “normal” waking state.

There is a small tension in the birth of Christ in the soul. On the one hand, we are to judge our thoughts objectively and impartially, like Christ the Judge. We shouldn’t want to be burdened by negativity.

On the other hand, Christ the Redeemer, will forgive (under the appropriate circumstances) these negative thoughts. There is the tendency in the modern world, under the influence of Freud and the “masters of suspicion” to consider negativity as representing “what we really are” or “our true feelings”. Quite the contrary … they are usually temptations from lower forces, not what we are meant to be.

Fortuitously, I just found out about this talk that may be of interest, at least the first half of it: The Psychological & Spiritual Effects of Being Negative

2016-11-30

Meeting notes for Advent Meditation I

We focused on the idea of “concentration without effort”, beginning on page 8 of MoTT. This is the first thing to learn.

So we learned an effortless concentration exercise that can be done at any time. During the week, we are to try this exercise whenever we pass through a doorway of any type. During those moments, we can observe the automatic movements of thoughts, images, passions, personal desires, and other mental perturbations. The idea is to develop the ability to consciously direct attention, rather than to allow our attention to be randomly attracted.

We can observe, then, what happens to mental perturbations while we are directing attention. Is there Silence where there was previously “noise”? We can learn to maintain this concentration for longer periods, as described on page 11:

To begin with there are moments, subsequently minutes, then “quarters of an hour” for which complete silence or “concentration without effort” lasts. With time, the silence or concentration without effort becomes a fundamental element always present in the life of the soul.

This concentration exercise is always available to us whenever we remember to try it.

We touched on higher forms of concentration, as outlined by Mary of Agreda in The Mystical City of God

Man’s mind is rapt by God to the contemplation of the divine truth in three ways:

He contemplates it through certain imaginary pictures.

He contemplates the divine truth through its intelligible effects.

He contemplates it in its essence.

Now when man’s intellect is uplifted to the sublime vision of God’s essence, it is necessary that his mind’s whole attention should be summoned to that purpose in such a way that he understands nothing else by phantasms, and is absorbed entirely in God.

These are related to the stages of prayer: vocal prayer, mental prayer, and unceasing prayer.

Concentration on mental images or thoughts are forms of meditation.
Concentration that is beyond images and thoughts is contemplation.

2016-09-182016-09-18

The Magician and Individuation

There is a reason why Valentin Tomberg worked on his Meditations in private for so long. If he had been publishing them piece by piece over time, he would have encountered opposition, arguments, disputes, etc., so that seems to be a common response to new ideas. That would have dissipated his energy needlessly. We see that, for example, in social media that give rise to arguments that do not lead to a greater synthesis, but harden attitudes instead.

The point is that the Meditations do not constitute a new teaching, doctrine, or dogma, but rather they give us the tools to understand sacred teachings in greater depth. Only by changing our level of being can we get the most out of the Meditations. Although clarifications are worthwhile, disputations are not.

Last year or so, a woman contacted me about the Tarot Meditations. She was a wealthy Palm Beach socialite who attended Mass daily and wanted to deepen her spirituality. After several email exchanges, we met for lunch. She went on and on about her Jungian psychoanalysis. She had an analyst in Palm Beach who did house calls because the socialite did not like to drive. There was another one in California that she consulted from time to time.

She emphasized that the analysts were quite expensive, especially the one in California. I was getting the feeling that she did not respect my work because I was not charging for it. Of course, as you probably know, there are many sources who charge a substantial fee to teach the Tarot. Good luck with that if that is what you respect.

Finally, I butted in and asked the obvious question: “How do you know when you are done with the analysis?” That left her visibly flummoxed! She had never even considered that question.

I went on to explain about “Individuation”, which is the aim of Jungian analysis. I offered to work with her on that. However, after lunch she sent me an email breaking off our relationship.

So to the point. Tomberg describes the state of consciousness of the Magician as “the synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious — of creative spontaneity and deliberately executed activity.” Tomberg explicitly identifies that state with what Carl Jung described as “individuation”. Moreover, it is required for “fruitfulness in both practical and intellectual realms.”

In Taoism, this state is described as the True Man.

To cut to the chase, we all need to work through that process of individuation, the formation of an integrated Self. That is not the RESULT of the Hermetic teaching, but rather the PREREQUISITE to even get started. After all, it begins with the Magician.

There are many resources available on individuation, and it may even be a good topic for discussion for those inclined. If you need a kick start, then perhaps this short video may help:
Individuation, the Persona, the Shadow, and the Self

2016-06-182016-09-18

Topical Message

The book Meditations on the Tarot (MoTT) has affected people on many levels.

Some will take it as an end in itself and either never go beyond the text itself or perhaps focus on the author, who deliberately sought to remain unknown, rather than the meditations.

Others will focus on the Tarot, become interested in the history of the Tarot, various cards, and so on, although MoTT is not at all interested in such topics.

Rather, MoTT’s purpose is to entice the reader into being a part of the living stream of the Hermetic tradition, and even to contribute to it.

The many authors cited in MoTT should entice us to seek out the original works. For, as MoTT points out, to become immersed in the thoughts of a dead writer is to re-think those same thoughts, thus bringing them back to life.

The sheer variety, however, presents us with difficulties. Someone who reads Thomas Aquinas, for example, is unlikely to have read Rudolf Steiner, and vice versa. An expert in Biblical scholarship will not have read occult literature. The historian of the human race will reject the esoteric history revealed in MoTT. The scientist is not interested in angels. And so on.

Hence, we rely on the method of depth. Two people of the same depth will understand each other, even when their surface interests are quite divergent. So instead of commentaries on the meditations, it would be better to focus on developing depth. The first four meditations provide the foundations; they need to first be understood thoroughly.

To that end, it would be better to focus on certain topics. Some specific topics for your consideration are:

Angels. The works of Dionysius, Steiner, and Swedenborg are suitable starting points.
Esoteric History. MoTT recommends Fabre d’Olivet, d’Alveydre, Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner
Cosmogony. Genesis, the yugas of ancient India, the Secret Doctrine, Occult Science, Plato, Zohar, etc.
Of course, there are specific Biblical texts that are good spiritual exercises: Genesis, St. John’s Gospel, Ezekiel, Revelation
Then there is the as yet unfulfilled meditation on the minor arcana, which has been left to the readers of MoTT

Obviously, none of these things can happens quickly, but to happen at all, a that task must be begun. I assume many of you think efforts in these directions will be quite worthwhile, both for your personal spiritual development, as well as to contribute to the Hermetic tradition. There are two ways to participate:

Mailing lists discussions of one or more of these topics
Online collaboration. We have web conferencing software, so we are planning an online discussion for some time in July

2014-08-30

Doubt and Certainty

Certainty is vanquished doubt, it is faith regained.

Adam and Eve by Cranach
In the meditation on Eden and the Fall in the Arcanum of the Lovers in Meditations on the Tarot, Valentin Tomberg tells us a little more about Hermetic meditation and how to obtain greater depth. He credits Carl Jung for discovering the method of successive explorations of the psychic layers in psychology. These depths extend even beyond one’s birth, and, since nothing dies, the entire past lives right now in the deep consciousness of the soul, i.e., the unconscious or subconscious. Keep in mind that this refers to the psychic memory, not necessarily the memory of physical events.

The example he uses is the story of Adam and Even in the book of Genesis. Unlike the fundamentalists who try to prove the historical and scientific veracity of the story as an objective event, Tomberg instead turns inward. He is not concerned with the external facts of the garden, trees, serpent, etc., but rather with the living psychical and spiritual realities that are revealed through the symbolism used in the story.

First of all, the story reveals the “beginning”, i.e., it is an initiation, not just of man as an objective being, but also of his interior states. That beginning is the primordial state of being in the image and likeness of God. The reawakening of that state is regeneration or theosis. But Paradise is also the beginning of the Fall, or the principle of temptation, which has three elements:

Eve listened to the voice of the Serpent
She saw that the tree is good to eat and pleasant to behold
She took some fruit, ate it, and then gave some to Adam

In general, temptation follows the following progression: listening, seeing, and experiencing.

The Tree of Life is the spirit, or higher centers, or true Self. The higher centers are oriented “vertically”, i.e., transcendentally. They hear the voice of God, which is one and unchanging. Adam-Eve are in unity and there is no doubt. Together, they are a pneumatic being.

Eve is the feminine principle of Adam, that is, the soul (or “anima”), i.e., the psychic (or “animal”) level. The serpent is the most cunning of the “animals” which is why “Eve” is the first target. (In English the connection between animal and anima is lost.) She listens to the serpent, which represents horizontal consciousness, i.e., the world as though it exists apart from God. The promise he makes is opposed to God’s command, so all of a sudden Even is faced with doubt as she entertains two contrary thoughts.

Just listening to the serpent is the root cause of the Fall, because the two opposing thoughts are considered to be on the same level. Yet the serpent’s claim seems plausible since the Tree of Knowledge is tasty and a delight to look at. This just increases the doubt to the point of an unbearable tension. There are two ways to deal with doubt.

One is to overcome it by rising up to a higher plane, that is, to return to God. This is the way to faith and certainty.
The other way is to try to resolve the doubt through experience. After all, Eve assumed that by actually eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, she could see for herself whether the serpent’s claim was true. This choice just leads to more confusion.

By interiorizing the story in this way, Tomberg elucidates the nature of temptation and how it is a constant presence in our spiritual lives, not just a unique event that happened to some other people in the indefinite past. God is One, but the devil is legion. Hence, in the “world”, we are bombarded with a barrage of opinions, all claiming to be the truth, and all contradictory with each other. This sows confusion. Now it should be a straight-forward decision to reject the ways of the world in favor of the ways of God.

Unfortunately, the glamour of the world is too delightful and we are nearly irresistibly attracted to it. What we hear sounds plausible, it makes us feel good, it enhances our self-esteem, and so on. Considering an idea in the mind then leads us to act on it, so we seek out various experiences by which we hope to assuage our doubt and find happiness. The temptation multiplies because, as Tomberg points out, those who fall into temptation try to draw others into the same experience as a way of confirming their own decision.

We don’t have to go into all the details and anyone can come up with countless examples from the news and in his own life. This meditation on Genesis is not meant to be a one-time meditation, so over time meditators can see more and more how the world entices us with its various promises. The reigning worldview is that if it feels good, it must be right. But that is tantamount to living at the level of an animal, when we really need to be living in the image and likeness of God.

It takes a lot of courage to resist all the temptations we face; just as the world lies to us, we lie to ourselves, hence the need to be extra vigilant. Ultimately it is a matter of Grace. There is no technique or process that will lead us to the primordial state. By clearing the soul of the perturbations resulting from temptations, we will open ourselves up to the experience of Grace. This cannot be forced. That is why Tomberg concludes:

One has experience but does not seek out experiences, because it would be contrary to the holy vow of Chastity to extend a hand and take from the tree of knowledge. The spiritual world does not tolerate experimenters. One seeks, one asks, one knocks on the door, but one does not open it by force. One waits for it to open.